Tabs

Monday, August 27, 2012

Easy On the Slang, Sucka!

I use a decent amount of slang, particularly for a 32 year-old man. I didn't realize I did until we were sitting at dinner recently and my six year-old daughter casually used the phrase "drop a deuce" when telling a story about our cats stinking up the litter box. I shot a glance at my wife, who was scowling, and raised my eyebrows as if to say, "Is that what I think it was?" She told me in hushed tones that her teacher had scolded her for using the same phrase at school, apparently in this context at recess: "Mrs. Castle, I need to drop a deuce."

I know I'm supposed to be ashamed and even embarrassed, yet a small part of me found humor in seeing my daughter coin a pop-culture phrase and use it correctly. A few other examples:

◦ My son hit me in the head with a basketball while we were wrestling and shouted "booyah" while fist pumping.

◦ My daughter beat my son at a game they were playing and threw her hands up while saying, "Oh yeah, sucka."

This has backfired more than once, of course. One of the first phrases I taught my two year-old to say was, "Yeeeeah boyyyeeeeeee" (also written "boiiiiiiiiiii"). Now whenever he gets mad at his siblings he says, "Stop it, boyyyyeeeeeee." When he used the big boy potty last week I said, "Yeeeeah boyyeee!" while attempting to high-five him, but he crossed his arms and stomped his foot and said, "I not boooyyeeeee," thinking it was a derogatory term. My wife is now deprogramming him with conversation about what a girl is and what a boy is, and the difference between "boy" and "boyyyyeeeeeeee."